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Charles Wood (composer)

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Charles Wood
Born(1866-06-22)22 June 1866
Armagh,Ireland, UK
Died12 July 1926(1926-07-12)(aged 60)
Cambridge,England, UK
Occupations
  • Organist
  • Composer
  • Academic teacher
SpouseCharlotte Wills-Sandford

Charles Wood(15 June 1866 – 12 July 1926) was an Irish composer and teacher; his students includedRalph Vaughan WilliamsatCambridgeandHerbert Howellsat theRoyal College of Music.He is primarily remembered and performed as an Anglican church music composer, but he also wrote songs and chamber music, particularly for string quartet.

Career[edit]

Born in Vicars' Hill in the Cathedral precincts ofArmagh,Ireland, Charles was the fifth child and third son of Charles Wood Sr. and Jemima Wood. The boy was a treble chorister in the choir of the nearby St. Patrick's Cathedral (Church of Ireland). His father sang tenor as a stipendiary 'Gentleman' or 'Lay Vicar Choral' in the Cathedral choir and was also the Diocesan Registrar of the church. He was a cousin of Irish composerIna Boyle.[1]

Wood received his early education at the Cathedral Choir School and also studied organ with two organists and masters of the Boys of Armagh Cathedral, Robert Turle and his successor Dr Thomas Marks. In 1883 he became one of fifty inaugural class members of theRoyal College of Music,studying composition withCharles Villiers StanfordandCharles Hubert Hastings Parryprimarily, andhornand piano secondarily. Following four years of training, he continued his studies atSelwyn College, Cambridgeuntil 1889,[2]where he began teachingharmonyandcounterpoint.In 1889 he attained a teaching position atGonville and Caius College, Cambridge,first asorgan scholarand then as fellow in 1894, becoming their first director of music and organist. He was instrumental in the reflowering of music at the college, though more as a teacher and organiser of musical events than as composer. After Stanford died in 1924, Wood assumed his mentor's vacant role as Professor of Music at theUniversity of Cambridge.[1]

According to his successor at Cambridge,Edward J Dent,as a teacher of composition, Wood "was surpassed only by Stanford himself [and] as a teacher of counterpoint and fugue he was unequalled".[3]His pupils at Cambridge included Ralph Vaughan Williams,Nicholas Gatty,Arthur Bliss,Cecil Armstrong GibbsandW Denis Browne.Dent says that, because Stanford did not reside in Cambridge, Wood took on the real burden on teaching for many years before his own election as Professor of Music, by which time his health was already undermined. He died in July 1926 after only two years in the post.

Personal life[edit]

He married Charlotte Georgina Wills-Sandford, daughter of William Robert Wills-Sandford, ofCastlerea,County Roscommon,Ireland, on 17 March 1898. They had two sons and three daughters, including Lieutenant Patrick Bryan Sandford WoodR.A.F.(1899-1918), who was killed in an aircraft accident during theFirst World Warand is buried atTaranto,Italy.[1][4]The family's address in Cambridge was 17, Cranmer Road. He is buried at theParish of the Ascension Burial Groundin Cambridge,[5]together with his wife. There is a memorial to him in the north aisle atSt Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh.[6]

The organist and composer William G Wood (1859-1895), also associated with Cambridge, was his elder brother.[citation needed]

Music[edit]

Like his better-known colleague Stanford, Wood is chiefly remembered for hisAnglican church music:there are over 250 sacred works and many hymn tunes. As well as hisCommunion Servicein thePhrygian Mode,his settings of theMagnificatandNunc dimittisare still popular with cathedral and parish church choirs, particularly the services in F,D,and G, and the two settings in E flat. DuringPassiontidehisSt Mark Passion,written in 1920 forEric Milner-White,the then Dean ofKing’s College, Cambridge,is sometimes performed. It demonstrates Wood's interest in modal composition, in contrast to the late romantic harmonic style he more usually employs.[7]

Wood's anthems with organ,Expectans expectavi,andO Thou, the Central Orbare both frequently performed and recorded; as are his unaccompanied anthemsTis the day of Resurrection,Glory and Honourand, most popular of all,Hail, gladdening lightand its lesser-known equivalent for men's voices,Great Lord of Lords.All Wood'sa cappellamusic demonstrates fastidious craftsmanship and a supreme mastery of the genre, and he is no less resourceful in his accompanied choral works which sometimes include unison sections and have stirring organ accompaniments, conveying a satisfying warmth and richness of emotional expression appropriate to his carefully chosen texts.

After the fashion of the time Wood composed a series of secular choral cantatas between 1885 and 1905, includingOn Time(1897-8, settingMilton),Dirge for Two Veterans(1901, settingWalt Whitman), andA Ballad of Dundee(1904, settingW.E. Aytoun). There were also madrigals (includingIf Love be Dead,settingColeridge), part songs (such asFull Fathom Five) and solo songs, one of which,Ethiopia Saluting the Colours(settingWalt Whitman) attained high popularity.[8]

Of the orchestral works, both the Piano Concerto (1886) and thePatrick Sarsfield Variations(1899) remained unpublished, although theVariationsreceived a performance at theQueen's HallBeecham Concertsin 1907.Walter Starkiesaid the work "shows his power of creating what may be called the Irish atmosphere in music".[9]It has been revived in modern times by theUlster Orchestra,conducted by Simon Joly.[10]However, Wood appears to have lost confidence and abandoned the orchestral medium after 1905. Three symphonies and an opera remained uncompleted.[1]

He also composed eight string quartets (six numbered, plus theVariations on an Irish Folk Tuneand a first movement fragment in G minor), spanning 1885 to 1917.[11]The early quartets show the influence of Brahms, but from No. 3 in A minor (1911) a more personal voice emerges, partly through the use of Irish folk melodies and dance tunes as thematic material.[12]There is a modern recording of No. 3 by theLindsay Quartet[13]and theLondon Chamber Ensemblehas recorded No. 6 for release in 2024.[14]The quartets were edited after the composer's death by Edward Dent and published in a collected edition by Oxford University Press in 1929.[15]

Wood collaborated with priest and poetGeorge Ratcliffe Woodwardin the revival and popularisation of renaissance tunes to new English religious texts, notably co-editing three books ofcarolsincludingThe Cowley Carol Book.Their collaboration also producedSongs of Syon.[16]He was co-founder (in 1904) of the Irish Folk Song Society. Wood's arrangement ofThe Irish Famine Song (The Praties They Grow Small Over Here)was recorded in the early 1920s by the Russian tenorVladimir Rosing,and released on Vocalion A-0168.

List of works[edit]

Recordings[edit]

  • Anthems,Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2003), Choir of Gonville and Caius College. Priory Records (2001, 2003)
  • The Choral and Organ Music of Charles Wood,Blackburn Cathedral Choir, David Goodenough (organ). Priory Records (1995)
  • Nunc dimittis in B-flat (Latin, à 6, a cappella) (1916),Expectans expectavi(1919),It were my soul’s desire,O Thou the central orb(1915), Charles Wood Singers, David Hill, Philip Scriven (organ), Regent REGCD567 (2023)
  • St Mark's Passion,Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge, Jonathan Vaughn (organ). Naxos 8.570561 (2008)
  • Septet, Berkeley Ensemble,recording available on YouTube
  • String Quartet No 3 in A minor, Lindsay String Quartet, ASV CD DCA879 (1993)
  • String Quartet No 6 in D, London Chamber Ensemble, forthcoming (2024)

Bibliography[edit]

  • Ian Copley:The Music of Charles Wood: A Critical Study(London: Thames Publishing, 1978),ISBN0-905210-07-7
  • Ian Copley: "Charles Wood, 1886–1926", inThe Musical Times,vol. 107 (1966) no. 1480, pp. 489–492.
  • "Charles Wood", inThe Musical Times,vol. 67 (1926) no. 1002, pp. 696–697.
  • Margaret Hayes Nosek: "Wood: A Personal Memoir", inThe Musical Times,vol. 107 (1966) no. 1480, pp. 492–493.
  • Royal School of Church Music (ed.):English Church Music(Croydon, UK: Royal School of Church Music, 1963).
  • Nicholas Temperley (ed.):The Athlone History of Music in Britain,vol. 5:The Romantic Age, 1800–1914(London: The Athlone Press, 1981).
  • Geoffrey Webber: "An 'English' Passion", inThe Musical Times,vol. 133, no. 1790 (April 1992), pp. 202–203.

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdAndrew Johnstone,Charles Wood(Dictionary of Irish Biography), 2009.
  2. ^"Wood, Charles (WT888C)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.
  3. ^Dent, Edward J. Preface toCharles Wood: Eight String Quartets(1929)
  4. ^Ina Boyle Society Limited,Ina Boyle and World War One,25 August 2015.
  5. ^A Guide to Churchill College(Cambridge, 2009), text by Dr.Mark Goldie,pp. 62 and 63.
  6. ^J. S. Curl:Funary Monuments & Memorials in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh(Whitstable: Historical Publications, 2013), pp. 52-53,ISBN978-1-905286-48-5.
  7. ^Charles Wood.St Mark Passion,notes to Naxos CD 8.570561 (2008)
  8. ^Percy Scholes:The Mirror of Music,p. 481.
  9. ^Arthur Eaglefield Hull(ed.):A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians(1924), p. 536.
  10. ^Charles Wood.Patrick Sarsfield Variations,performance on YouTube
  11. ^Jeremy Dibble: "Wood, Charles", inGrove Music Online(2001).
  12. ^Charles Wood. String Quartet No. 3 in A minor, Edition Silvertrust.
  13. ^British String Quartets,ASV CDDCA 879 (1993), reviewed inGramophone
  14. ^'London Chamber Ensemble – Charles Wood, Herbert Howells – and Debussy',inSalon Music,21 January, 2024
  15. ^Charles Wood.Eight String Quartets(1929), Google Books
  16. ^Illing, Robert (1963).Pergamon Dictionary of Musicians and Music.Vol. 1: Musicians. Oxford: Pergamon Press. p. 130.
  17. ^"The Prize Grace".wcomarchive.Retrieved25 June2021.
  18. ^Gant, Andrew (24 September 2015).O Sing unto the Lord: A History of English Church Music.Profile Books. p. 251.ISBN978-1-78283-050-4.Retrieved12 July2022.

External links[edit]

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